


Talk It Out

by SherlockSage



Series: Catharsis [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:41:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24079933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockSage/pseuds/SherlockSage
Summary: Lila spills the secret of Marinette's crush, and it's up to Adrien and Marinette to pick up the pieces.Or, How I Stopped Worrying, And Told Adrien How I Felt
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Catharsis [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737259
Comments: 14
Kudos: 185





	Talk It Out

Marinette sat on the steps of the Collège Francois Dupont and cried her heart out. She had meant to go farther than literally five meters from her classroom, somewhere private, somewhere warm, somewhere the world would not watch her crumble into miserable stone.

But her legs would not carry her and her heart crumbled the moment she’d escaped, in a way, from the great cold edifice of the grandest _collège_ in Paris, her home, her prison.

And somewhere in the distance, she heard footsteps. Running. Ah, they’d found her.

“Marinette!”

And before she could run, before she could stop her savior from scooping her up in his arms, before she could tear away from Adrien Agreste and his kind eyes that pierced her soul and wracked her with sobs, she was crying into his shirt, being gently laid on the grass in the courtyard just inside the school.

Back inside. Back in jail.

“Marinette, I’m sorry.”

Once upon a time, she would have been delighted to hear those words. Once upon a time, she would have blushed and stammered and staved off his apologies and been a nervous wreck in his mere presence.

Just as well she was wrecked now.

When her sobs had become mere whimpers, small sniffles as Adrien held her close and stroked her hair, he continued.

“I didn’t know. I thought Lila was just lying for attention. I didn’t know she’d hurt you. And I wish I could have stopped her from hurting you today.”

He turned, muttering under his breath.

“I wish I hadn’t hurt you, too.”

Marinette tried to look up at him, but he was holding her too tightly. Even in this condition, she blushed at how warm he was, and at his heartbeat in her ear.

“Adrien, it’s okay. You didn’t know. I couldn’t find the words.”

“But for Lila to expose you like that? To tell the whole class that you had a crush on me and _then_ insinuate that you just wanted me for my career and my looks? To accuse you of being shallow?”

Adrien moved just enough to let her look at him then.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng: shallow? That’s some hardcore projection right there.”

She giggled a little. “Well, she’d know after all. She’s riends with Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Prince Ali, XY, and every president of France since Chirac after all. Lots of pushy, shallow people to meet there.”

Adrien burst out laughing at that. “ _Mon dieu_ , how did anyone ever believe her lies?”

Marinette frowned at that and buried her head back into Adrien’s shirt. A small alarm bell ringed in her head that she was burying her head in _Adrien_ , but frankly she was too tired to protest or stammer or move at all, really. Better to be safe and warm now and panic later when there was time and energy.

“I don’t know that they did.”

Adrien frowned down at her. “What do you mean?”

Marinette chewed at her words. “She’s a good storyteller. None of it was very believable, but everyone knows that drunk uncle with a million stories or that one aunt who’s traveled to a billion locations around the world and exaggerates it all. I figure they thought she was just exaggerating, not that the whole canard was a pack of lies.”

She sighed. “I don’t blame them really. I might have believed it too if she hadn’t lied about knowing Ladybug.”

Adrien shifted again, tension in his shoulders. There was a sound there, rumbling in his chest. Was he growling? “That’s how I knew too. No way Ladybug would tell anyone her identity, and no way Ladybug would let her best friend paint a target on her back for months on end.”

“R-right, that’s how I knew t-too.” Ah, the stammer was back. Hello again, old friend.

“But Lila crossed a line today. Stepped so far over, I’m surprised wasn’t doing a 20-meter triple jump over the line. She hurt you, Marinette. No one gets away with that.”

Marinette was so red now, they could probably detect it from space. She was surprised she wasn’t burning a hole In shirt, and — oh now she was thinking of him without his shirt on and —

“Marinette? Hey, hey. It’s okay.” Oh, she was whimpering again. She shifted out of his grasp and wiped her eyes and nose.

“No, no, it’s okay. She spilled a big secret, but I —“ she turned away from his face, his green eyes, his cherubic cheeks — _hey hey focus you’re in the middle of sentence._

She took a deep breath. “—but I’ve been meaning to tell you I liked you for a long time.”

She let it lie there. She didn’t she had it in her to just lay it out so simply, but she had to know. There was no point in hiding or in poetry. Lila had driven a stake right through that.

Adrien took her hands in his. She squeaked but managed not to flail her hands out of his reach.

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Adrien wasn’t looking at her. Her heard seized up in her throat. Had she made a mistake?

“I like you too. I’ve been —“ Adrien took a deep breath. Then he took two more. “—I’ve been coming to terms with the fact that the girl I liked all of _quatrième_ didn’t like me back, and then I started to get over her and I wanted to get to know you better, but I figured you didn’t like me either —”

“Adrien, no.” She touched her forehead to his as he looked up at her.

“I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you.”

Marinette took a few hitched breaths and pressed on. “I wanted you so much that I think I put you on a pedestal sometimes, but you, your kindness, your good nature — they always reminded me that your heart brought me in, not your face, not your eyes, not your money.”

“I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you by driving you away. Not if you wanted to just be a normal _collégien_ without some girl hanging on to your hip. You needed friends more than I wanted to be with you. You needed love first before I could ask you to give it.”

Marinette was almost glowing in the afternoon sun, puffy red eyes and all. How had he never seen her before? Ladybug shined in his heart, but Marinette radiated love and warmth at everyone she met. How had he never seen her before?

Adrien cleared his throat. “Normal _collégiens_ can have relationships too. Not just friends.”

Marinette blushed. God, she was so cute, how had he been so blind? “But you still needed support above all else. I couldn’t take that away from you if our relationship failed. What if we split the class in two?”

Adrien started but considered her words. She was kind and talented and gorgeous and stood up for friends and warmed his heart whenever his father and his schedule and sometimes even Ladybug left him cold. Emotionally, he wanted to believe they could last. Surely, he wasn’t that fragile. He saved Paris regularly! (Too regularly if his grades in French Literature were in any indication). But, logically, she was right.

“No relationship survives without hard work,” Marinette was saying, “and we’ve spent so much time dancing around each other like butterflies on the wind that we have no foundation to build a relationship on.”

Marinette sighed and leaned into his shoulder. “At least, that’s the advice I’ve heard.”

Adrien squirmed. It sounded it a lot like Master Fu’s advice to him when he’d asked him for help with Ladybug a month ago. It was why he was trying to loosen her grip on his heart now.

“That makes sense.” Adrien was still running his fingers through her hair, asking her to stay a little longer in his touch. “But we shouldn’t have been hiding so much, I don’t think. Not from our feelings and not from each other.”

Adrien looked away then. “And not because we’re afraid of losing each other.”

Marinette squawked. He was afraid of losing her? Oh, how her heart soared and drowned in the same moment. She’d been pulling away on Master Fu’s advice, pulling away to try to be his friend first and she’d left him in the lurch.

She barked a small humorless laugh. “Look at us, running from our feelings and leaving each other cold.” She nuzzled into him, more aware now of the grass under her and sun moving across the sky. “We should head back to class soon.”

Adrien nodded and pulled her to her feet. “I’m sorry, Mari. I should have been a better friend to you.”

Marinette smiled and hugged him. “And I to you. I won’t leave you to deal with Lila or Chloe or your father on your own again, I promise.”

Marinette blushed then and looked away. “And we try to build that foundation, if you like. Andre’s Ice Cream and a walk in the park after school today?”

Adrien grinned a wide, almost Chat-like grin then. “It’s a date!”

It was a miracle of having spent so much time in his arms just minutes before that she didn’t combust on the spot right then. Only a small squawk came out, but Adrien just grinned at her, took her by the elbow, and led her in the classroom on his arm.

Just outside the door, he paused and checked on her. “Will you be okay in here?”

Marinette nodded. “I’m not worried about losing you anymore.” She smiled.

And they walked in to face Lila and Chloe and Alya and the whole class. To face their future, together.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic! (That I've completed ;^_^)
> 
> Please let me know if there are any typos and let me know what you think of my writing and if there are ways I can improve! I want to write Marinette and Adrien as well as I can, as I love these sweet babies and I want good things for them! :D


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